Thursday, 19 August 2010

Move over Ratzilla, there's a capybara on the loose

A rat the size of a bulldog has been shot dead on a Bradford council estate. Word is, the creature - dubbed 'Ratzilla' by The Sun newspaper - could be descended from the coypu, a large rodent native to South America.

I'm sorry Bradford, but we've got a rat the size of a flat-coated retrieverin The Enchanted Village. It's more like a capybara than a coypu. And it's getting bigger by the day.

Champagne-Charlie has been lying in wait for the monster from the safety of the garden shed while he keeps watch over the Sheepwash hens.

Mr Grigg and I dismissed the tale as something told by a big game hunter who's had one too many gins.

But C-C is adamant.

'It was about this long,' he said, doing an impersonation of a coarse fisherman who's narrowly missed landing a 5ft pike.

Known as nutria on this side of the pond, they have been the bane of farmers in the south for generations. When I was in my teens we used to hunt them in the wetlands around the outskirts of the Great Dismal Swamp. Back then the $2 per head bounty was good money.

This reminds me of that urban myth about the woman who vacations in South America and falls in love with an adorable, affectionate little native dog. Smitten, she smuggles it back home. Once home, her other beloved pets are violently dispatched one by one (a veritable Agatha Christie) -- and the horrified woman learns the cute dog is actually a long-haired RAT!

My husband is hardly as grounded as these hunters sound lol He screamed out "giant rat" like a girl one night and it stopped and looked offended long enough for me to point out that it was a possum, and now a highly put out one. I mean really, it had a big bushy tail!